Storm Clouds
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: BGC2032: Sometimes the worst things happen because of the best intentions...


Stormclouds  
  
"Our opposition is a series of worker class boomers that have been retrofitted with guns and light armor. They were to be used in terrorist activities. We can expect between ten and fifteen boomers, with light machineguns." Sylia handed out folders to the rest of the Knight Sabers sitting around on the couches.  
  
"And we get 700,000 yen apiece?" Linna asked excitedly. She could make a couple of car payments and buy that new stereo that she'd seen the other day.  
  
"Yes. Hardin Enterprises, a US firm, recently discovered that several boxes of its low military grade hardware and guns had been stolen out of a warehouse and hired a detective to track down the thieves. Yesterday, what information he had was delivered to Hardin Enterprises after he had failed to check in after four days." Sylia took a moment to sip at her tea, putting it back on its china cup holder daintily. "The information and location was in that last report. Wishing to remain anonymous, they contacted us to clean up their little mess."  
  
"Sound easy enough. So, we go in and blow up all the boomers?" Priss asked.  
  
Sylia smiled slightly. "Roughly. If we can capture the terrorists that is even better." Some people would never change.  
  
"And then it's vacation time?" Nene asked.  
  
"Yes, while I work on the new hardsuits. I was also thinking about renovating the building too." Sylia tapped her fingers. She had almost decided against taking this job, but it had looked simple enough and it would give the girls some money to float them for a while.  
  
And with that they adjourned to the hardsuit storage room. With little ado, they set to work getting into their inner suits. With no sense of urgency they took their time. Linna ribbed Nene on her waistline again. "So, looks like you gained another few centimeters."  
  
"That's mean!" Nene wailed in defense. Linna didn't even seem to notice, as she was used to most of Nene's sob tactics.  
  
They were interrupted as the door opened up, admitting Mackie in. With out even looking up from his papers, he spoke up, "Sylia! Are you sure about these stress limits on the hardsuits? They appear to be too high for the composites used."  
  
Nene let out an 'eep' and covered her breasts. Looking around frantically, she saw that she was the only one who was half dressed. "Mackie! What do you think you're doing?" Nene shouted out unthinkingly.  
  
"Hmm? What do you mean, Nene..." Mackie's voice trailed off as he looked up. "Ah, I think I'll go wait outside. B-bye!" With deft movements, he dashed out of the room, barely letting the door open before he closed it again.  
  
"That pervert!" Nene finished pulling the suit all the way on and ran for the same door.  
  
"Wait! Nene! He didn't do..." The closing door cut off Sylia's comment. "...anything wrong." Sigh.  
  
"Mackie! Come back here!" Nene hollered after the fleeing youth.  
  
Mackie dashed for the safety of the elevator. His heart sank as he realized that the elevator was upstairs. He turned around just in time for Nene to catch up to him.  
  
"How dare you peep on us!" Nene cried out, right in his face.  
  
"I wasn't peeping! I was just trying to talk to Sylia! I thought you guys were all ready to go on the mission! Honest!" Mackie's face was panicked even as he was backed into a corner.  
  
Nene opened her mouth to continue her tirade and suddenly snapped her mouth shut. "Oh. Really?" A sinking sensation slammed into her stomach. "I... I'm sorry." She took a few steps back as her face started to redden in embarrassment. It was just a knee jerk reaction with Mackie. It had been for a long while.  
  
Mackie muttered under his breath angrily, "And to think I thought you were the nice one."  
  
"I... I'm really sorry Mackie. I just reacted without thinking. Please don't hate me." He thought that I was the nice one? What have I done? He stayed with me during that Merriam mess at the ADP headquarters and all.  
  
"Uh, I don't hate you. Really!" Mackie's face was starting to burn in embarrassment himself. She must have heard him.  
  
Nene smiled tentatively. "Thanks, Mackie. I never did get to really say thank you for what you did, staying with me two weeks ago. That really meant a lot."  
  
"I just couldn't leave you. We're a team and you needed my help."  
  
"Oh." Nene's face showed her disappointment. "Just a team."  
  
Mackie laughed nervously. "Well, maybe not just a team."  
  
So what are we, Mackie? Mackie had been spending a lot of time with her. And she'd found that she enjoyed his company. "So, what are we then?"  
  
Mackie gulped. "I don't know for sure."  
  
Nene clasped her hands in front of herself. "I wouldn't mind being more than a team." Very carefully, she stepped closer to him. Nene was surprised to see that Mackie looked like he was getting even taller. "How about you?"  
  
Mackie gulped quietly. "I wouldn't mind either." Should he? Or would that be too forward?  
  
Before he could make up his mind, Nene had stepped up, her face looking up at him as their bodies nearly touched. Nene stepped up onto her toes and kissed him. Stepping back after a second. "I've got to go. How about a date tonight?"  
  
"Sure. That sounds like fun. I'm off to go prep the truck!" Mackie waved as he started to walk off.  
  
Nene waved back as she re-entered the hardsuit storage room. She couldn't quite keep a smile off of her lips as she walked back in.  
  
"Hmm. You looked like you swallowed the canary, Nene-kitten." Linna watched out of the corner of her eyes for a reaction.  
  
Surprise, guilt and then embarrassment all danced across her face. "I do?" Nene replied. A small smile came back on to her features. "It's nothing too big. I've just got a date after our mission."  
  
Sylia nodded, just before putting her helmet on. "I was wondering when you were going to get to that point."  
  
"You guys all knew?" Nene double checked her snug suit and then stepped into her hardsuit and started to snap it together over her body.  
  
"We aren't blind," Priss reminded Nene. "And you guys haven't exactly been secretive or anything."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Enough chit chat. Let's get going." Sylia walked out the door and headed to the garage.  
  
-  
  
The Knight Sabers watched the warehouse below them. It was a fairly ugly, squat concrete building with no redeeming features. After a few minutes, they had determined that a two prong attack. Sylia and Linna would go in the front door, while Priss and Nene where to go into the back and hopefully capture the terrorists.  
  
Moving somewhat stealthily, they split up into their separate teams. On a signal transmitted by Sylia they leaped into the air. The thruster blared to bring them to a soft landing. They had only touched down for just a scant moment before blasting in the doors from both sides of the building.  
  
Inside the building the small group of swarthy men looked up at the sounds of crashing metal. The leader looked over to his men as his eyes narrowed. He'd expected this since they killed that private investigator. "We've been compromised. If only we had just a few more hours. We could have destroyed the infidels in their embassy. We will not admit defeat! Send the boomers to kill the Americans! Now!"  
  
"Right!" Quickly and efficiently they activated all of the boomers. Eyes glowing red, they activated, the backup plan becoming their primary orders. In the center of the group, two human looking boomers stuck out incongruously.  
  
With the tromp of dozens of feet they split up to use the two exists. Just in front them, the door crashed in, admitting a dark blue hardsuit.  
  
"Yeah!" Priss yelled dashing forwards and punching a boomer in its stomach. The tightly contained explosion from her knuckle bomber shattered its weak armor.  
  
"Priss! Sylia! There are way more boomers than there are supposed to be! And they have two real combat boomers!" Nene yelled out, her advanced communication equipment cutting through the static.  
  
"What?" Priss said, looking away from her opponent for just a second.  
  
From behind two boomers, the armored combat boomer rocketed towards her as it ripped out of its disguise, catching her in a tackle and smashing her right through a concrete wall.  
  
"Priss!" the red hard suited figure yelled out. Her attention was brought back to the fight abruptly, as swarms of bullets ricocheted from her armor. She leaped backwards into the small hall. Two muscular looking boomers led the chase after her. Their mismatched armor plates giving them an unnerving look.  
  
Nene didn't waste a moment, exiting the building to give herself some room.  
  
"Priss, you take care of the combat boomer. Nene! Try to contain the others until she can get free!" Sylia called out as Linna and herself dove into the other boomer battle line, smashing the weaker boomers and trying to disable the combat boomer before it could shed its human disguise.  
  
"Don't worry, Nene! I'll be fine," Priss radioed back.  
  
"I've got eighteen boomers to take care of. I can do this. I think," Nene said to herself. With a wince, she turned off ninety percent of her communication equipment. She really wasn't worried about them hitting her, but she really needed to divert the extra power to her laser.  
  
Taking a deep breath, she started to fire long laser blasts at the lead boomers. The first five barely had a chance to react as her enhanced beam cut through their weak armor. Two more almost got within reach of her, but a burst of her thrusters shot her down the road, giving her more room. They were cut down before she hit the ground.  
  
The rest of the boomers had opted to take cover behind cars and dumpsters, making it harder for her to shoot them. For the next five minutes, she gleefully shot the outgunned boomers.  
  
Absently, as she sheared the head off of a boomer that popped up to shoot her, she noted the AD Police showing up. Only two more to go. Where was Priss?  
  
One of the last boomers ran past the AD Police car, faster than humanly possible. It's movements almost seemed panicked.  
  
Detective Dailey Wong hopped out of his cruiser, bringing up his own handgun. That had looked like a standard maintenance boomer, carrying an assault rifle. He unloaded his gun into it, causing it to jerk and stagger.  
  
He was in the process of slapping in a clip, when a red figure dashed by him. "Last one! Come back here, you stupid boomer!" Nene yelled.  
  
Dailey shrugged. It looked like he had happened upon one of the Knight Saber jobs. He was sure that he'd get to clean up the mess later. Looking up, he saw the first armored transport driving up. So had the boomer, as it turned to try and get away, running down an alleyway.  
  
Nene skidded around the corner, her blood pounding in her as she lined up the boomer in her sights. She triggered the laser just as she thought she saw something fluttering in front of the boomer. "Got you!" Nene crowed as a large hole was burned through its back.  
  
The boomer dropped to the ground in a clatter and skidded, shedding its momentum.  
  
"Yay!" Nene crowed.  
  
And then her world shattered. Looking for all the world as if something had dumbfounded her, a young girl, dressed in Islamic robes, crumbled backwards against the wall and then to the ground, a mere twenty feet in front of the boomer. First to her knees and then to a sorry mass on the ground, a muted thump was the only sound she made.  
  
For years, the image of that girl, eyes wide in shock, would haunt Nene. Her mouth would move silently, trying to say something, anything. But she couldn't breath and she couldn't feel her legs.  
  
That was because a hole eight inches wide had been burned right through her chest.  
  
For scant moments, Nene couldn't move, couldn't think. Uncertain steps took her forward, almost stumbling over the boomer. "Nononononononononononononono..." Nene cried out turning the girl over.  
  
Blank, vacant eyes stared up at her.  
  
"Oh, God! Nooooooooo..."  
  
Dailey came around the corner chatting amiably with the sergeant in charge of the TAC troops. He stopped as his eyes took in the scene. The dead boomer he'd been expecting. Even the Knight Saber. The young girl that she was cradling something else entirely. It was immediately evident that something was wrong.  
  
Careful steps brought him up the kneeling figure. For just a moment, he couldn't place the odd sounds that she was making, until it dawned on him that the Knight Saber was sobbing uncontrollably. It became painfully apparent what had happened in just a moment. The wound burned all the way directly through her body couldn't have been made by any bullet.  
  
He struggled for a moment, grappling with the moral quandaries that he faced.  
  
With a set, determined expression he pulled out his hand gun. "Sergeant, get your men and that transport." Dailey took a deep breath. "Knight Saber, you're under arrest."  
  
Nene barely heard him, his voice distant and meaningless. All she could think of was the young girl that she had just killed. The next ten minutes were a blur of images to her later recollection. She let them move her around as if she was a deactivated boomer.  
  
Dailey watched the Knight Saber the entire way to the AD Police headquarters. The poor girl was curled up on the bench, still crying. She didn't even seem to notice that her left arm had been handcuffed to the railing. The truck jerked to a halt and the doors slammed open. Daley and another officer directed her out of the truck.  
  
Nene dazedly looked around as she was brought into the processing room. An officious lady looked at her. "Please take off the armor."  
  
Nene stared for a long moment, the meaning being hard to grasp right then, as elusive as grasping at the air. Finally she noticed the many armed men in the room, pointing rifles at her. With a surge of adrenaline that cleared her mind, she realized where she was. "One second." Could she get away? Not without at least hurting someone. Possibly... killing someone. That really only left surrender. "Omega one one two niner alpha."  
  
Sparks and bangs came from the self-destructing armor as seams came apart and left the different pieces lying on the ground. Nene carefully took three steps away and tossed her helmet back on the pile of smoldering armor. Sparks and flames crackled out of it.  
  
"Hands on your head! One more stunt like that and you're... Nene?" Dailey gasped out in surprise.  
  
Nene laced her finger behind her head. Tears started streaming down from her eyes. She had really screwed up big this time.  
  
"Oh, shit. Ramos! Get me the chief! Now!" Daley yelled out.  
  
-  
  
"Her tracker just cut off. From the signal it looks like she activated the suits self destruct," Mackie said, looking up from the computer in the back of the truck. Worry made his face look older than his sixteen years.  
  
"What was her last location?" Sylia asked. A sheen of sweat covered her brow. She was still in her armor. Her helmet was next to the keyboard.  
  
Mackie's fingers flew across the keyboard. "Extrapolating..." Mackie winced. "She was in the ADP headquarters."  
  
"Arrested, then. We'll have to see what charges they are going to be holding her on." Hopefully. The alternatives were not good.  
  
Linna and Priss exchanged worried glances.  
  
Priss slammed her metal shod fist into the wall. "Why don't we just go and get her out? It's not like those pieces of crap they have can stop us!"  
  
"Do you know what happens to cop killers, Priss?" Sylia said coldly, looking over her shoulder. "Or do you like living the life of a fugitive? If we go in there, someone is going to be hurt or killed."  
  
"I... I just hate doing nothing."  
  
"We have to be careful. One wrong move and we could be hunted down like bandits or terrorists."  
  
Linna's eyes widened at that. "Whoa. I... never thought of it that way."  
  
"We need more information."  
  
-  
  
"Hey, Naoko! What's up?" Leon said as he walked past on the way to his desk. It was rare when he got a half day off. But he'd been nearing burn out and Chief Todo had ordered him home and to bed.  
  
"Not much. I think Chief Todo is looking for you." Naoko looked over at Nene's desk, wondering where the girl was.  
  
"Damn. He'd better not be about to rip into me for coming in late today."  
  
"Leon! Where have you been!" The older stocky Negroid man stomped past him in a hurry. "Never mind! You're coming with me, now!"  
  
"Sure Chief, no problem." He wondered what had gotten into the older man to get him this riled up.  
  
Leon let himself be led down to the human incarceration section. Rarely used, it housed the humans that were sometimes brought in for questioning instead of being sent over to the Normal Police.  
  
So you could forgive him for being surprised when he found Dailey Wong interrogating Nene Romanova. She looked miserable and had obviously been crying. She somehow managed to make the prisoner's uniform look cute, although her hair was disheveled. He noted that she'd been shackled to the table, like some of the most dangerous and violent of criminals.  
  
"Oh, Leon. Say hello to the 'pink' Knight Saber." Dailey gestured at the despondent young woman.  
  
"And what led you to that amazing deduction?" Leon asked as he pulled his sunglasses down his nose to get a better look at the dispatcher. Little Nene?  
  
"Well, other than the fact that she stepped out of the armor down in containment, none!" Dailey rolled his eyes at his overly macho sometime partner. He scrubbed his fingers through his curly reddish hair.  
  
"This is a fiasco! One of our own department is a damned law breaking vigilante!" Todo shouted. He slammed his palm down on the table, startling Nene. Her face contorted, as if she wanted to cry.  
  
"So it's true?" Leon could hardly believe it. Priss, yes. Nene? Almost unthinkable.  
  
Her red hair bobbed as she nodded an affirmative.  
  
"So, why did you work for the Knight Sabers and the ADP, Nene?" Chief Todo demanded, getting right in her face.  
  
"Eee!" Nene flinched backwards, but couldn't move because of her cuffs. "I was s-supposed to find out what you were going to do about the Knight Sabers. I'm a hacker, so it wasn't too hard." Sweat hung on her brow.  
  
"So that whole bull about the Knight Sabers risking themselves for the ADP was phony?" the irate fat man yelled in her face.  
  
"No! I like being an ADP. We... They do a lot of good. I was doing some good." She started to snivel. "A-and I screwed it up! Oh, God." Nene slumped bonelessly to the table, crying softly.  
  
"What the hell?" Leon exclaimed, looking in confusion at the two other officers.  
  
Dailey motioned him closer and whispered into his ears about the innocent fatality. Leon's face fell, almost comically.  
  
"I haven't been able to get anything out of her. She's been too distraught." Dailey shrugged his shoulders. He was glad that he wasn't in the hot seat like his superior was going to be.  
  
There was a rap on the door and a desk officer peeked in. "Sir, a counsel is here for Miss Romanova."  
  
Todo looked over, his jaw creaking audibly. "What the hell are you talking about?"  
  
"Some hotshot lawyer just showed up, claiming he was hired to defend her." The thin dark haired office moved out of the way as the portly Chief of the ADP suddenly bustled out the door and down the hall.  
  
In minutes, they were up at the front desk. An impeccably dressed gentleman sat stiffly at one of the many desks. Todo walked up to him directly. "Chief Todo? I am from Fujikawa, Smith and Junko. I have been hired to represent one Miss Nene Romanova."  
  
"And who hired you?" Dailey asked intently. They could track down all of them.  
  
"I was hired by a gentleman named Fargo. He said that he'd been hired to be a go between. Is there a problem? I would like to see my client as soon as possible."  
  
"There may be some difficulty with that request," Todo said ominously.  
  
"What sort of problems? My client has the right of representation!" The lawyer looked as if he was getting more upset by the moment.  
  
"It's for her own protection. I think we'd better have some privacy!" Todo turned his rotund form around and headed for the elevator.  
  
-  
  
Sylia sat on her couch, looking out over the dawn. MegaTokyo seemed to be walking from its early morning slumber into full activity. It was true that the city never slept, but it did catch cat naps when it could.  
  
A shuffling sound caught her attention. "Mackie."  
  
"Hey, uh, Sis." Mackie looked almost as ragged as she felt. "What's going on with Nene? It... it feels like we're abandoning her to the sharks."  
  
"I've already hired her the best lawyers I can. I'll be honest with you, it looks pretty grim. I just found out that Nene messed up last night. An innocent was killed as a result of her actions."  
  
A muted gasp was all that Mackie could make. "W-what?"  
  
"She got careless and accidentally killed a sixteen year old girl from Saudi Arabia."  
  
"How's she holding up?" Mackie's concern was easily the most important thing on his mind.  
  
"Not well."  
  
"Isn't there anything that we can do to help her?" Mackie asked as he sat down next to her.  
  
"I'm doing all I can reasonably do now." She closed her eyes. She continued with a quieter voice, "You may be able to do more."  
  
"Huh? What do you mean, Sis?"  
  
"Nene could use a friend that could try to help her through these problems. That person will be under an intense scrutiny. They would have to quit the Knight Sabers and have an extremely limited contact with us." Sylia opened her eyes and watched the warm glow of the Sun as it rose.  
  
"You can't quit. And you need Priss and Linna too much to suggest it to them." She had it already figured out.  
  
"It's up to you. It's your life. And Nene's, of course." 


End file.
